And then I watch something like Gary Bernhard's "Boundaries" talk[1], which isn't bad, mind you, and think "maybe this Brad Cox guy with his Software ICs really knew what he was talking about?"
Where Apple went off the rails with Objective-C was trying to make it into an OO language like Java. It isn't. It is a deliberate hybrid, with a component implementation language ("C") married to a component connection language ("Objective").
My own approach is to take this distinction seriously, and instead of doubling down on the "better Java" part like Swift does (which in Software-IC terms is focusing on the less interesting and mostly solved component implementation part) and instead expand on the ways we can connect components (dataflow, constraints, storage composition, etc.).[2]
Minor correction: GNUStep, libFoundation etc. happened around 20 years ago, not 10.
And then I watch something like Gary Bernhard's "Boundaries" talk[1], which isn't bad, mind you, and think "maybe this Brad Cox guy with his Software ICs really knew what he was talking about?"
Where Apple went off the rails with Objective-C was trying to make it into an OO language like Java. It isn't. It is a deliberate hybrid, with a component implementation language ("C") married to a component connection language ("Objective").
My own approach is to take this distinction seriously, and instead of doubling down on the "better Java" part like Swift does (which in Software-IC terms is focusing on the less interesting and mostly solved component implementation part) and instead expand on the ways we can connect components (dataflow, constraints, storage composition, etc.).[2]
Minor correction: GNUStep, libFoundation etc. happened around 20 years ago, not 10.
[1] https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/boundaries
[2] http://objective.st/